Architect of Beijing's CCTV HQ is back with city centre art and design hub

Other architects had tried and failed. For 18 years, the site at the corner of Wangfujing and Wusi streets had seen 30 proposals come and go, each bedevilled by the height restrictions and commercial pressures on one of the last major building sites near Beijing's Forbidden City.

Then finally there was a breakthrough in the form of the Guardian Art Centre, designed by German-born, Beijing-based architect Ole Scheeren for China Guardian, a 22-year-old auction house. Construction started in 2013 on the 34-metre-high complex, which will house an auction house, exhibition space, educational facilities, a hotel and restaurants.

"It's the largest and most radical reinsertion of the art scene into the centre of Beijing," says Scheeren.

"Everything has migrated out to 798 [Art Zone] in the suburban exodus. Refocusing it in the very centre could be very exciting for the city itself."

This is Scheeren's second major project in Beijing, the first being the controversial CCTV Headquarters he designed with Rem Koolhaas while working at OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). That took him to the Chinese capital more than 12 years ago, but in 2010 Scheeren parted ways with OMA, and founded Büro Ole Scheeren. Since then, the practice has steadily built a diverse portfolio of projects ranging from skyscrapers in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to artists' studios in Beijing.